Instructions unclear

Content warning: excruciating over-analysis of a school assignment and how it demonstrates the communication issues I face in a neuro-typical world.

“What climate issues do you consider most prioritised? Why?”

This is a question from one of my school assignments. Seems pretty straightforward… so why did it cause me to almost tear my hair out?

A common sentiment in media and society in general is that people on the autism spectrum (like me) see and interpret the world differently from neuro-typicals. Some call it a crippling disability, others a superpower, personally I settle for ‘a mode of functioning that deviates from the norm’. It’s not better or worse, just different. However, when there is no consideration taken to the fact not everyone falls within the norm, things can get difficult for those who fall outside of it.

This is not ground-breaking analysis and I bet anyone reading this who’s in some way differently-abled just had their eyes roll to the back of their scull (sorry), but it’s important to point out. When things just work for you it’s easy to become oblivious and not realise how it might not for others. While I can cross the street in a few seconds, someone in a wheelchair might have to take a long detour to find somewhere they can get down the curb. And while it’s a lot easier to demonstrate this lack of consideration and its effects with physical ability rather than mental, the principle is the same. This question is my curb. Let’s analyse.

What’s the point of a question like this? To prompt students to write something that’s relevant to the study material, or in other words, its an instruction from the teacher that explains what they expect the students to write about.

So why do questions like this cause me problems? Two reasons: first, because I interpret the world in a way that falls outside of the norm and 2: because of that I’ve trained myself to constantly second guess myself.

Taking things to literally is a tired trope at this point, but it’s definitely rooted in reality. People on the spectrum can struggle with metaphors, subtext, tone of voice and so on, luckily that’s rarely been a problem for me (I hope), however when it comes to instructions, especially school assignments that ability completely breaks down. I can’t tell you how many times this has screwed me over, forced me to rewrite my work or outright lowered my grades.

First of all, there are no instructions of what sort of text is expected of me. I’m just assumed to already know or intuit that by myself. Not even a word count is given.

“What climate issues do you consider most prioritised? Why?”

To me, the intuitive thing is to write a short, concise response that answers the question as clearly as possible. But no. After learning that I cannot rely on intuition, instead asking teachers to explain in detail what they expect of me at the start of any course, I now know I’m supposed to write a university style paper, with a title, introduction conclusion and sources.

Second: what does this question even mean? A literal reading could be to analyse the current political situation in regards to climate change, what issues are considered important and its literally what the question is asking for, however that leads to a bunch of unanswered follow-up questions, primarily ‘prioritised by whom, and where?’ Citizens? Politicians? Industry and business? Locally? Nationally? Internationally? Also, the explicit mention of my own opinion is a bit out of place so maybe what the question is actually after is what climate issues I personally think are most important to address? Then it makes sense why they’re asking for my own opinion but in that case, wouldn’t it say ‘should be’ rather than just ‘most prioritised?’

Initially the literal interpretation feels more intuitive, however asking for my opinion makes no sense and I’ve learned I can’t trust my intuition anyway. Simultaneously I notice the alternate interpretation and while it on one hand seems more reasonable, considering the choice of words ‘do you consider’, on the other it would force me to literally imagine words that are not there to make the syntax work. Maybe it’s just a careless error, a mistype but I can’t assume that, especially about words that change the entire meaning of the sentence. Experience also tells me a neuro-typical person probably would read it the second way rather than the first but would they really go against what’s explicitly written? They can’t be that stupid, or language blind. Although it’s not uncommon to imply words and meaning without explicitly writing it out, maybe that’s what’s happened, although then these other three interpretations also become valid…

This is a brief look into approximately what goes on in my mind while looking at this question, and it goes on like this until nothing makes sense anymore, similarly to when you repeat a word over and over until it just becomes meaningless noise.

To confirm that this isn’t just me being stupid I asked some friends how they would interpret the question. An unscientific method and a small sample-size is by no means enough to draw any conclusions, but it confirms that it’s not just me. Most of my neuro-typical friends interpreted the question along the lines of “What climate issues do you think should be prioritised” while those on, or suspected to be on the spectrum tended to complain that the question made no sense or gave the literal interpretation “what climate issues are being prioritised”.

The question is vague, has multiple interpretations or contains an unnoticed mistake yet none of this is a problem because the neuro-typical brain fills in the gaps, extrapolates and still draws the right conclusion because its on the same wavelength. Mine isn’t. I hyper focus on the minutiae, the smallest details and most subtle nuances of language trying to extract as much information as I can. Where it is missing, I cannot fill in the blanks because I imagine several, equally valid alternatives. Where there is uncertainty, I conceive of multiple, equally valid interpretations. Where there is ambiguity, my imagination has a field day. I’m left with countless versions of the same question and only one of them will lead me to the essay my teacher wants me to write.

I don’t want to have to ask my teachers to interpret every single question, explain every single assignment, just as the person in a wheelchair doesn’t want to ask for help each time they need to get down the curb. It makes me feel stupid. And just as they shouldn’t have to take a long detour I shouldn’t have to go though THAT on a regular basis. Small things can be of enormous help, like ramps or raised crossings. What my equivalent might be we’ll have to save for an other time, because this is getting far to lengthy.